Countering Military Recruiters in Our Schools
"No one should have to kill or support killing for an education or citizenship"
-David Ledesma
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Recommended DVDs
 
 
 
  Occupation 101
by Sufyan Omeish & Abdallah Omeish

A thought-provoking and powerful documentary film on the current and historical root causes of the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Unlike any other film ever produced on the conflict -- 'Occupation 101' presents a comprehensive analysis of the facts and hidden truths surrounding the never ending controversy and dispels many of its long-perceived myths and misconceptions.

The film also details life under Israeli military rule, the role of the United States in the conflict, and the major obstacles that stand in the way of a lasting and viable peace. The roots of the conflict are explained through first-hand on-the-ground experiences from leading Middle East scholars, peace activists, journalists, religious leaders and humanitarian workers whose voices have too often been suppressed in American media outlets.

The film covers a wide range of topics -- which include -- the first wave of Jewish immigration from Europe in the 1880's, the 1920 tensions, the 1948 war, the 1967 war, the first Intifada of 1987, the Oslo Peace Process, Settlement expansion, the role of the United States Government, the second Intifada of 2000, the separation barrier and the Israeli withdrawal from Gaza, as well as many heart wrenching testimonials from victims of this tragedy.

 
  The American Ruling Class
by Lewis Lapham

In this first of its kind "dramatic-documentary-musical", Lewis Lapham takes two young Ivy-League graduates on a tour of the corridors of power. The novice careerists must decide: should they seek to rule the world, or to save it?

 
  The Iron Wall
by Mohammed Alatar

In 1923 Vladimir Jabotinsky, leading intellectual of the Zionist movement and father of the right wing of that movement, wrote:

"Zionist colonization must either stop, or else proceed regardless of the native population. Which means that it can proceed and develop only under the protection of a power that is independent of the native population - behind an IRON WALL, which the native population cannot breach."

From that day these words became the official and unspoken policy of the Zionist movement and later the state of Israel. Settlements were used from the beginning to create a Zionist foothold in Palestine.

After 1967 and the occupation of the West Bank and Gaza, the aim of the settlement movement became clear - create facts on the ground and make the creation of a Palestinian state impossible. Thirty nine years of occupation and the policy started showing results. There are now more than 200 settlements and outposts scattered throughout the West Bank blocking the geographic possibility of a contiguous Palestinian territory.

The Iron Wall documentary exposes this phenomenon and follows the timeline, size, population of the settlements, and its impact on the peace process. This film also touches on the latest project to make the settlements a permanent fact on the ground - the wall that Israel is building in the West Bank and its impact on the Palestinian's peoples.

Settlements and related infrastructures are impacting every aspect of life for all Palestinians from land confiscation, theft of natural resources, confiscation of the basic human rights, creation of an apartheid-like system, to the devastating impact in regards to the future of the region and the prospect of the peace process.

Palestinians and Israelis began the peace process based on a very simple principle: land for peace. Settlements destroy that principle and create a land with no peace.

 
  Palestine for Beginners
by Linda Bevis & Edward Mast

Filmed before a live audience and professionally edited, Palestine for Beginners is a presentation by two American human rights activists who have traveled many times to Palestine and explain the situation. The presentation examines the background of the conflict, Zionism, 1948, 1967, the situation today, occupation, equal rights and peace, non-violence and resistance, and the one state vs. two state debate.

 
  The Ground Truth
by Patricia Foulkrod

Hailed as "powerful" and "quietly unflinching," Patricia Foulkrod's searing documentary feature includes exclusive footage that will stir audiences. The filmmaker's subjects are patriotic young Americans - ordinary men and women who heeded the call for military service in Iraq - as they experience recruitment and training, combat, homecoming, and the struggle to reintegrate with families and communities. The terrible conflict in Iraq, depicted with ferocious honesty in the film, is a prelude for the even more challenging battles fought by the soldiers returning home - with personal demons, and uncomprehending public, and an indifferent government. As these battles take shape, each soldier becomes a new kind of hero, bearing witness and giving support to other veterans, and learning to fearlessly wield the most powerful weapon of all - the truth.

 
  Why We Fight
by Eugene Jarecki

WHY WE FIGHT, the film by Eugene Jarecki which won the Grand Jury Prize at the 2005 Sundance Film Festival, is na unflinching look at the anatomy of the American war machine, weaving unforgettable personal stories with commentary by a "who's who" of military and beltway insiders. Featuring John McCain, William Kristol, Chalmers Johnsnon, Gore Vidal, Richard Perle and others, WHY WE FIGHT launches a bipartisan inquiry into the workings of the military industrial complex and the rise of the American Empire.

Inspired by Dwight Eisenhower's legendary farewell speech (in which he coined the phrase "military industrial complex"), filmmaker Jerecki surveys the scorched landscape fo a half-century's military adventures, asking how - and telling why - a nation of, by, and for the people has become the savings-and-loan of a system whose survival depends on a state of constant war.

The film moves beyond the headlines of various American military operations to the deeper questions of why - why does America fight? What are the forces - political, economic, ideological - that drive us to fight against an ever-changing enemy?

"Frank Capra made a series of films during World War II called WHY WE FIGHT that explored America's reasons for entering the war," Jarecki notes. "Today, with our troops engaged in Iraq and elsewhere for reasons far less clear, I think it's crucial to ask the questions: 'Why are we doing what we are doing? What is it doing to others? And what is it doing to us?'"

 
  Iraq For Sale - The War Profiteers
by Robert Greenwald

The story of what happens to everyday Americans when corporations go to war. Acclaimed director Robert Greenwald takes you inside the lives of soldiers, truck drivers, widows and children who have been changed forever as a result of profiteering in the reconstruction of Iraq. Iraq for Sale uncovers the connections between private corporations making a killing in Iraq (Blackwater, Halliburton/KBR, CACI and Titan) and the decision makers who allow them to do so.

 
  SIR! NO SIR!
by David Zeiger

SIR! NO SIR! tells the long suppressed story of the GI movement to end the war in Vietnam. This is the story of one of the most vibrant and widespread upheavals of the 1960’s- one that had a profound impact on American society yet has been virtually obliterated from the collective memory of that time.

 
  Two Days in October
by Robert Kenner

Some stayed. Some went. All fought.

In October 1967, history turned a corner. In a jungle in Vietnam, a Viet Cong ambush nearly wiped out an American battalion, prompting some in power to question whether the war might be unwinnable. On a campus in Wisconsin, a student protest against the war spiraled out of control, marking the first time that a campus anti-war demonstration had turned violent.

American Experience presents Two Days in October, based on the book They Marched Into Sunlight by Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist David Maraniss. From director Robert Kenner (War Letters, Influenza 1918, John Brown's Holy War), this moving film examines the critical events that took place in the turbulent fall of 1967.

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  Arlington West
by Sally Marr and Peter Dudar

An ocean of over 4,000 crosses swells across the sand beside the Santa Monica Pier every Sunday, erected faithfully by Veterans For Peace. Conversations recorded here display the entire spectrum of viewpoints about how our own military is currently feeling before and after being in the combat zone, and how our military families are handling the greatest loss, a child killed in war. It is a tribute to our fallen U.S. soldiers.

Flag draped coffins rest forefront, beside an 80-foot long board that names the Arlington West Film Soldier dead servicemen and women. Visitors are invited to write the name of a soldier, any personal comment, and with a fresh flower, place an identity to each lonely cross. The film opens with an electric guitar gently weeping taps while we hear the voice of Gold Star Mother, Jane Bright, who lost her son in Iraq. We see the newspaper headline declaring that the Pentagon banned all photos of flag-draped coffins returning from war.

Next, a visit is paid to Steve Sherrill's shop, a Carpenter in Santa Barbara, who sought a way to acknowledge our American dead. “They agreed to lay down their lives to protect and defend our country. And the only thing we owe them in return is a promise; that their lives will not be wasted.”Friends and families drive for hours or fly in from across the nation to place photos of loved ones.

The film ARLINGTON WEST allows all to witness the poignant thoughts, dramatic revelations, silences, personal experience, and share the tears with those who are paying the highest prices for war. A full array of opinions and sentiments are presented: Active Duty Soldiers and Marines, Military Families, Veterans, and Children are featured in this revealing 74-minute encyclopedic documentary.

 
  Soldiers Speak Out
by The Empowerment Project

Soldiers Speak Out is a powerful, first-hand testament to the reality of the military experience told entirely in the words of American veterans who have been to war and are now opposing it. We hear how they came to join the military, about their experiences in training and in war, and what led to the turning point when they decided they could no longer, in good conscience, participate in the war or keep silent.

This half-hour documentary sheds light on the growing and courageous anti-war and anti-occupation movement within the military and their families, and serves as a counter-recruitment and organizing tool for activists, schools and organizations. It provides a sober view of the occupation in Iraq and an important counterpoint to the 'stay-the-course' rhetoric of the Bush administration.

 
  SOLDADOS: Chicanos in Vietnam
by Charlie Trujillo and Sonya Rhee

Charley Trujillo, who wrote the 1991 American Book Award winner on which the film "Soldados: Chicanos in Viet Nam" is based, is our guide to the war and post-war experiences of five Chicano soldados from Corcoran, California. Corcoran sits in the lush San Joaquin Valley amid rich cotton fields and had long been a destination for Mexican migrants seeking work. For Larry Holguin, Miguel Gastelo, Frank Delgado, Jose Barrera and Trujillo himself this wasn't ancient history. They all grew up working in the fields alongside their parents and siblings, and shared a life and values not much different from that of their forebears.

Charley Trujillo as a soldier This meant fighting for their country, as their fathers had done in World War II and the Korean War. The five boys from Corcoran (two of whom volunteered for duty) could hardly guess just how profoundly the insulated life they knew in Corcoran would be changed by their experiences in Southeast Asia.

"Soldados" shows that in a war that both exposed and exacerbated America's racial conflicts, Chicanos in the ranks found themselves uniquely caught in the middle — between whites and blacks, whose clashes dominated the era, and between U.S. society's contradictory views of them as loyal citizens and as alien migrants. At the same time, they experienced all the horrors of a war that tore two nations apart. All the Corcoran men were wounded — Trujillo lost his right eye — and most were decorated for valor. One, Jose Barrera, died in battle — a story related movingly by his mother.

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